


Counting Stars

by heroami



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble Collection, Langst, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot Collection, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), klangst, mentions of OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12855924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heroami/pseuds/heroami
Summary: Spinets of Lance and Keith trying to navigate feelings while saving the universe.And every universe after that.





	1. One Step at a Time

**Author's Note:**

> A collection of drabbles/one-shots that are generally 1,000 words or less from my tumblr page.

“Dude,” Lance whispered as the token alien prince of the week swept out of the room grandly. “He was  _totally_ vibing on you.”

Next to him, Keith shot him an annoyed look, lips pursed tightly until the door closed behind the prince with a  _click._

“Is that really what you were focusing on?” The Black Paladin demanded once he was sure they were alone, rounding on his companion with his arms crossed firmly over his chest. He leveled Lance with a look that he  _thinks_ is meant to be stern and disapproving. “We’re trying to form an alliance here and you’re thinking about  _that_.”

“Um, it was kinda hard not to,” Lance scoffed, planting his hands on his hips, completely unperturbed - Keith should really leave the scolding to Shiro. “He was eyeing you the entire time.” His lips pulled into a knowing smirk. “He  _likes_ you.”

Keith flushed, turning his head away. “Shut up.”

Lance’s smirk grew positively devious. “ _Ohhh,_ I see how it is,” he taunted, reaching out and poke his teammate’s stomach teasingly, just below his chest armor. “Do you, perhaps, like him too?”

Keith shifted away from his hand, sending him a sidelong glance. “Maybe. So?”

Lance’s grin flickered before coming back full force. “So, why don’t you do something about it? We’re not due fly out for another two days; plenty of time to –  _ah_  – get to know the prince better.” The Red Paladin waggled his eyebrow suggestively as Keith’s flush darkened to a full-blown blush. His cheeks were starting to ache from the force of his smile.

“That-. No, none of  _that,_ ” Keith croaked, hands flexing visibly before digging into his still-crossed arms firmly. “Besides, that would be…” He trailed off and shook his head roughly. “We’re leaving in two days. To continue fighting a war. That would be irresponsible.”

“Or a chance for you to have fun for once,” Lance countered, though his heart clenched at the implication. “I’m not saying marry the guy, just see where it goes. Or just talk to him. Plus, the prince isn’t an idiot. I’m sure he’ll realize anything between you is… temporary.”

He watched as violet eyes flickered between him and the door. Keith pressed his mouth into a thin line, still looking uncertain, but also like he was actually considering the idea.

“You think so?”

“Man, this is me you’re talking to,” Lance reasoned with his usual put-upon air of arrogance. “I’ve figured out whether a romantic venture is worth it or not.”

Keith snorted. “I suppose that’s true. Lot of trial-and-error on your part.”

“Shut the hell up, asswipe.”

Keith laughed at that outright, and despite his wounded pride and squirming insides, Lance found himself smiling as well. After a moment, the Black Paladin sobered up. His crossed arms loosened and fell to his sides once more as he glanced back at the door again, looking nervous this time.

“Maybe just this once.”

Lance clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man. You want any pointers?”

“From you? Hard pass.”

“Rude.” Huffing, Lance turned to the table and grabbed their data pads, closing out of the note-taking programs and tucking them securely under his arm. “While you do that, I’ll go debrief the team.”

Keith nodded in approval, smiling as Lance quietly wished him luck and left his leader to his own devices.

The brunet walked through the unfamiliar halls of the prince’s castle, carefully retracing his steps from earlier that afternoon.

Once he was certain that he was far enough away from the meeting room and still a ways from their Paladin quarters, he slowed to a stop. He leaned against wall, hyper-focusing on his breathing instead of the sickening roll of his stomach.

 _‘This is for the best,_ ’ the logical part of his brain reassured.  _‘And, look, you’re making progress!’_

But no matter what that little voice told him, Lance’s chest still seemed too small for his lungs and his heart ached.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and, taking a final deep breath, pushed off the wall. He glanced up and down the hall, making sure he hadn’t been caught; it wouldn’t do to have a stray servant see a member of Voltron so broken up over nothing. Especially over a stupid, pointless crush.

Blue eyes lingered longingly on the way he came before Lance turned away decisively.

“One step at a time,” he reminded himself, forcing his feet forward, away from Keith and the royal quarters. “One step at a time.”

 

 


	2. Broken Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His abuela had warned him about Keith.  
> Okay, so maybe not Keith per say, but people like him.

His abuela had warned him about Keith.

Okay, so maybe not _Keith_ per say, but people like him.

Lance remembers her sitting him and his sister down one afternoon, her serious expression prompting silence from the usually rambunctious twins.

“Be careful who you fall in love with, queridos,” she instructed. “Don’t chase after a broken heart. No amount of promises or sweet words will heal it. They have to do that themselves, and only if they want to. Waiting on them to do so will only hurt you in the end.”

At the tender age of ten, Lance took those words to heart. When he finally reached an age where he took an interest in girls – and boys too, as it turns out – he made himself a set of rules for falling in love and pledged to follow them religiously. He had been doing a good job so far. Sure, he flirted a lot, but that was just a part of his ‘getting-to-know-you’ process and it didn’t usually progress beyond that and when it did, he was careful. (Mind you, Nyma was an outlier, having never really been interested in him in the first place, and therefore should not be counted.)

It’s hard to tell just how broken someone was when everyone wore masks. He was a prime example of that.

Apparently so was Keith.

As time went on and the previously daunting Castle of Lions began to feel more and more like home, Lance began to see the cracks in the other boy’s mask. Yeah, he was still the hotheaded, hotshot pilot but he also was more than that. Keith was just as insecure as Lance was about his abilities, especially after he became the Black Paladin, and just as lonely. Possibly even more so. Keith was confused about his place in the universe and about his exact place on the team thanks to the lion switching and his general social ineptitude and nasty habit of shutting down when people got too close for his liking.

In summary, Keith’s heart was a huge, shattered mess, a perfect example of the kind of hearts his abuela warned him not to chase.

But what his abuela never told him was how love was unpredictable; you couldn’t control it like he had previously believed. It just struck, like a bolt of lightning.

For Lance, it struck while he was drunk off his ass. The paladins were curled up in the lounge after a long day, passing around a bottle of Altean liquor and trading stories of past hi-jinxes. At some point, Keith threw back his head, laughing at a story Pidge was telling, and Lance felt the floor drop out from beneath him. After all his careful planning and rules, he still ended up helpless.

For a while he was angry – at himself, at Keith, at the  _entire universe_  – because how was this fair? He was already in the middle of an admittedly hopeless war, God-knows how many miles away from a home he may never see again and he had to go and fall in love with the one person he could never have (for more reasons than just the one, which was a door he did not want to open, thank you very much) because Keith was definitely the kind of person to ignore an emotional problem rather than face it head on, unlike literally every other obstacle he encountered; the cruelest of ironies, if you asked Lance.  

Eventually, he resigned himself to it. So, this was his reality now; he was in love with Keith. So what? He had bigger fish to fry in this unfair war-torn universe – such as said war. Worrying about it was a lost cause. The whole thing was a lost cause, even as eyes began to linger longer and longer from across the room, casual touches became borderline caresses and smiles softened. And it wasn’t just him. Keith was totally doing it too, to the point that Lance began to think his abuela might be wrong – maybe you  _could_ fall in love with a broken heart and come out unscathed.

Maybe there was hope for them yet.

Of course Keith then had to go and ruin it by spending more and more time with the Blade and pulling away from the team. And when he finally approached everyone about actually leaving, Lance’s own heart shattered.

But Lance plastered on a smile and sent him off with well wishes because, maybe, this was what Keith needed. He was taking matters into his own hands and was going to fix his own broken heart.

And when Keith came back, well…

Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for them yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I ever let them be happy?  
> Maybe, someday


	3. Mind Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You’ve been really distracted since you’ve figured out you’re into him,” Pidge observed, as though reading his thoughts. “If you keep losing, his ego's going to get bigger than it already is and nobody wants that.”  
> “What do you want me to do about it?”  
> “Fix it.”  
> “Okay, genius, how?”  
> Pidge paused for a moment, tilting her head in consideration. “You could tell him you like him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trying real had to get out of this writers' block funk, so I've decided just to power through.

Keith grunted as he hit the ground. Hard.

His head swam from the impact and the air was knocked surely out of his lungs.

Before he could orient himself, a weight settled on his stomach, knees digging into his sides and hands scrambling to yank his arms over his head, effectively pinning him.

Groaning, Keith opened his eyes to glare up at Lance’s smug smile.

“That’s the second time I’ve pinned you today, Keith,” he teased, grin growing impossibly wider. “I know I’m good but you usually put up more of a fight. Something on your mind?”

Meanwhile, Keith was trying not to combust. He should have been coming up with a scathing response to Lance’s goading, but all he could focus on was the heat of Lance’s legs seeping through their clothes and burning his skin, the hands, equally hot, gripping his wrists and just how close Lance was as he leaned over Keith, grinning like the cat that got the cream. It took all of Keith’s willpower to not turn as red as his armor.

Seeming unperturbed by his lack of response, Lance released his arms and smoothly rolled off him. Keith, on the other hand, made no moves to get up, instead closing his eyes and trying desperately to catch his breath. He groaned again when he heard Lance bragging about his victory with Hunk on the sidelines.

He had forgotten the others were there too.

A foot pushed gently into his side. He swatted it away, but it was back seconds later, a little harder, a little more insistent. Keith peeled open an eye to find Pidge hovering over him, sucking on a water pouch.

“What?” he huffed, doing his best to glare at her with only one eye.

She pulled the straw out of her mouth with an audible pop and grinned sweetly down at him. “I brought you a water,” she said, holding out an extra pouch. For a moment, Keith felt bad about snapping at her. She was only trying to be nice. However, that feeling vanished as quickly as it had come as the younger paladin’s sweet smile turned into a shit-eating grin. “You looked a bit thirsty,” she continued with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Keith opened his other eye so she could experience the full intensity of his glare. Which didn’t seem to do any good, since Pidge simply snorted and plopped onto the mat next to him, dropping the water on his stomach in the process. 

He stared at the silver pouch for a moment, debating whether he should actually drink it or leave it to cool his still-too-warm skin. Deciding on the latter, he dropped his head back onto the mat, and closed his eyes, willing himself to sink into the floor so he wouldn’t have to go up against Lance again.

“You’ve been really distracted since you’ve figured out you’re into him,” Pidge observed, as though reading his thoughts. “If you keep losing, his ego's going to get bigger than it already is and nobody wants that.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Fix it.”

“Okay, genius, how?”

Pidge paused for a moment, tilting her head in consideration. “You could tell him you like him.”

Keith was really glad he decided against drinking. Didn’t stop him from choking on his own spit upon hearing the suggestion though. “What?!”

“You know,” Pidge said, waving her free hand idly as she spoke. “Tell him you’re into him so the next time you two spar, he’ll be just as distracted as you. It’ll even the playing field and maybe help you get your edge back.”

All he could do was give her an incredulous look. “So, basically, play mind games with him?”

Pidge paused for another moment before nodding firmly.

Keith stared at her for a long moment, as she looked across the room to see what the others were doing. After a moment he tilted his head back to see Lance attempting to do headstands against the far wall of the training room with an anxious Hunk looming over him. When he finally managed to get his legs upright, Lance’s eyes immediately turned towards them. He caught Keith’s eyes for a moment before sticking out his tongue and turning away. Keith couldn’t fight back the small smile that graced his lips, having found the innocent gesture oddly endearing.

Finally, he turned back to Pidge decidedly. “You’re a conniving little gremlin, you know that?“

Pidge merely shrugged. "Hey, if it gets the job done.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [check out my tumblr](http://heroami.tumblr.com/)


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